Chapter 17 E'tokmite'k
"Here. Try this orange one." Suki handed an orange bikini to Katara.
She took half a second looking at the small pieces of cloths held by thing strings of fabric before making a face and pushing it away from her. "No! No, no, no. Suki, it needs to be something less skimpy. I'm not wearing that."
"Fine, ok. Well, at least get off your butt and look around." Suki said to her friend who had been sitting away by the dressing rooms, uninterested and unmotivated.
"I just feel so naked looking at those bikinis." She crossed her arms over her chest.
"Hey Katara! How about this one?" Yue skipped over with another styled swimsuit. The top was navy blue with short black shorts. It was simple and less sexy compared to what Suki picked out which made her more willing to try on.
She took it by the hanger. She let out a small mumble because she couldn't come up with anything to protest with.
"Yeah that's cute. Try it on and we'll keep looking around." Suki said, giving Katara a little push to the dressing rooms. "I think the orange would have looked better" She whispered to Yue.
Katara stood in the small room looking between the bikini and herself in the floor length glass mirror that occupied one wall entirely. She looked down to her wrist-watch and checked the time, then sighed. "I still have an hour before I'm supposed to meet him." She felt the fabric of the top with her fingers. "I guess change isn't a big deal. It's just a swimsuit. Mine is getting tight anyways."
"Keep your foot on the brake and put the car in drive." Zuko instructed Katara in the school parking lot.
"Ok. I'm a little nervous." She admitted as she adjusted her hands on the vibrating wheel.
Zuko had parked the car at one end of the lot which seemed to stretch longer to Katara.
"Don't be nervous. Trust me, surfing is scarier. Is your foot on the brake?"
"The brake is the left one, right?" She hesitated.
"Yeah. Push down all the way and then shift into drive."
"Shift into drive." She repeated to herself quietly.
Zuko smiled as she did as instructed. "Ok now gently take your foot off the brake and the car will start moving."
As her foot slowly lifted up, the car began to creep forward. Her heart began to race.
"Ok, now give it a little gas. That's the other pedal."
Nervously, Katara stepped too much on the gas pedal and the car jerked forward. She switched quickly to the brakes, again the car jerked.
"Whoa!" Zuko held instinctively on the dashboard. He turned to Katara who's eyes were wide and her mouth hung open. The look of fear on her face made Zuko laugh a true and genuine laugh from the pit of his stomach. "Relax! It's fine. Most people do that. It's all ok."
Katara blushed embarrassed, she pouted and pushed hair behind her ear. "Well, you didn't have to laugh like that."
He tried covering his mouth but the laughter continued. "I know. I'm sorry." He sighed, trying to calm down and looked at her with the smile still on his lips. "Do you want to come over for dinner?"
She raised an eyebrow.
"My mom was asking about you. I told her I'd invite you tonight." He explained.
"Uh.. Sure. Thanks." She smiled. "I'd like that."
"Alright, are you ready to try again? Let's try going backwards to give you more space. This parking lot isn't too big."
"You want me to drive backwards? I can't even go forward!" She protested.
"Well if you want I can do it for you." He tried to hide another laugh with a cough.
She furrowed her eyebrows. "I can do it. Just tell me how."
"With your foot all the way on the brakes, put the car into reverse. You're going to turn around in your seat and try to stay as close to the sidewalk without straying too much into the street."
She shifted gears and did as he said. Aside from driving up the sidewalk at the end, she did pretty good.
As they waited for dinner to be prepared, Zuko took Katara up to his bedroom.
"Sorry for the mess. You can sit down there." He pointed to his chair at the desk as he sat on his neatly made bed. The mess he referred to was a few books on his bed and desk.
"Trust me, this is nothing. My room looks like a storm hit." She said.
"Really?" He asked, leaning on his pillow.
She looked away at the books, suddenly feeling nervous. "Kinda."
"So, I've been meaning to ask. Is it ok to talk to you at school tomorrow or is Jet not ok with that neither?" Zuko asked.
Katara's head shot up. "No, just be normal. We aren't doing anything wrong for being friends. He's just-"
"Jealous."
"Sort of."
"Why? You mentioned it before but if you don't want to talk about it you don't have to." Zuko looked at her attentively with those honest eyes that made her realize what a mess she's been in.
She bit the inside of her mouth. "I can't talk about it yet." She hung her head down in helplessness against the fact that Jet and her tribe are so skeptical on his family that its almost betraying them to associate herself as of friend of his.
Zuko frowned. Not that she couldn't tell him but because it was something troubling her. He stood up and stripped his shirt off. Immediately, she raised her head when she saw the shirt fall in front of her.
"Zuko, what are you doing?" She asked, alarmed.
"Let's go in the ocean for a while." He took her hand to help her off the chair.
"But..isn't dinner almost ready?" She was lead out the door into the hall. "And I don't have anything to wear!"
He stopped and ran back to his room. "Hang on." He came back out with the same shirt he had removed. "You can wear this. Let's go." He held her hand again and hurried down the stairs.
"Oh, Master Zuko! Dinner is..." A servant called out as the two ran past in the living room.
"Let us know when it's ready! We'll be on the beach! Bring towels!" They ran out the door into the evening light.
"Hurry!" Zuko said. "You're not hurrying!"
Katara began to laugh. "You're crazy!" She shouted. "Hurry for what?"
He stopped again. Glaring at her who looked back at him like his prey.
"What?" She asked slowly.
He leaned over and picked her up.
"Ah! Zuko, no! Put me down!" She smacked his back playfully.
He lifted her on his shoulder and ran the rest of the way down to the water. "You're not hurrying enough!"
She laughed and held onto him tightly. "Don't drop me!"
He stopped once his shoes almost touched the water. "Can I throw you in then?"
"No! I have to change first!" She whipped him with the shirt.
"Oh yeah." He gently let her down, holding on her making sure she kept her balance. "Hurry."
"Shut up!" She laughed.
Zuko, smiling, took off his shoes and socks and cast them aside. He walked in first and turned around. "Aren't you coming in?"
"I will after I change! You were in such a hurry you didn't let me use the bathroom!"
"Oh. I thought you were just going to put it on over your shirt." He said slightly apologetic.
"What's the point of that? Now turn around. This isn't a show." She pointed to the ocean.
Zuko smirked. "Hurry up then."
"Zuko, I swear if you say hurry one more time!" She kicked water and bits of wet sand at his back.
He laughed. "Alright, alright."
She quickly exchanged shirts but then battled with herself on whether or not she should remove her bra as well.
"Done?" Zuko called out.
I don't want to get my shirt wet when I change later. She thought to herself. "Hang on!" She unhooked the strap and let the bra slip down and hid it with her shirt. She ran out into the water and dove into a wave.
"Show off." He muttered before diving in himself.
The sun was setting fast, creating a soothing mood all over the island. Zuko ran a hand pushing back his wet black hair that refused to stop hanging over his eyes. He noticed Katara getting out of the water.
"Where are you going?" He asked.
"I just want to fix my braid." She explained as she pulled her hair forward. There was something he couldn't deny as being sexy how Katara looked with his shirt that was a bit too baggy on her.
He followed her out.
As she re-braided her hair she took a quick glance on him. "You know, I bet a lot of girls would be jealous of me right now being with you. I mean, we can tell you work-out but they have no idea." She teased. "You were able to lift me to easily too! But please don't do that again."
"Do what? This?" He grabbed her waist and spun her around.
"No!" She shouted. She held on top of his hands.
A harsh wave came in and knocked against his feet causing him to lose his footing. He fell over, bringing her down with him on the sand.
Katara's hair was curly and all over her face as well as part of Zuko's. They both laughed as he helped her clean her vision.
"You made me lose my hair tie!" They sat up facing each other. She gathered all her hair and twisted it behind her back. Zuko's eyes quickly darted away to the ocean as it was at that moment he realized she wasn't wearing a bra.
He cleared his throat. "So, that was fun."
She looked up at him smiling from ear to ear. "It was, but why did you want to go swimming all of the sudden?"
"Because you don't look good when you're upset."
Their shadowed faces stared intensely at each other. Katara's eyes stayed wide and her lips slowly parted. Zuko lifted a hand to her face, stroking away a stray hair sticking to her skin.
"Thanks." She whispered.
His hand came back down next to hers. He carefully touched the tips of her fingers. She responded by curiously touching his as well. Katara shyly tilted her head away, watching his hand take hers, intertwining their fingers. Her cheeks burned.
"Hey." His voice sounded deeper than normal. "Can we talk about something?"
"Master Zuko? Oh! I'm sorry, sir!" The servant interrupted before noticing she was still there.
"Yes?" He answered back annoyed without looking at him.
"Dinner is served. Shall I leave the towels with you?"
Zuko stood up careful not to fly sand into Katara's eyes. He left her to grab the towels from the man and sent him off. "We'll be there soon."
"Yes, Master Zuko."
By now, Katara's face was back to normal and she felt able to breath again.
"Here." Zuko handed her the towel as he dried his hair. "You can change in the bathroom."
"Ok."
"So how was the water? You two were in there for a while." Ursa asked as she put her spoon back into her soup.
"It was fun." Katara smiled. "But if it's ok to ask, where's the rest of the family?"
The only ones at the large dinner table were herself, Ursa, Zuko and his uncle.
"My husband is home but he's on the phone with an important client so you'll have to excuse him from joining us. As for my daughter and her friends, they went into town tonight."
"Speaking of which, today I found this nice little tea shop in this lovely marketplace..." Iroh's story began.
"Here's fine." Katara said as she released herself from the seat belt of Zuko's car a few streets down from home. "I'll see you at school tomorrow. Remember, act normal around me. Ok?"
"Sure. Are we on for more lessons next weekend?" The way he asked was casual enough but made him nervous as he heard it, not to mention making Katara blush again.
"Saturday for sure. But Sunday and the weekend after I'm busy. We have an important festival to prepare for." She briefly explained.
"What is it for?"
She wanted to give him the general idea so that she could get home before anyone saw her in the car. "It's honoring E`tsi Nvda. The spirit of the island who it's named for. We have dances and there's a lot of ceremonial things I would have to explain on a different day." She put her hand on the door. "I have to go. Bye. Thanks for today."
He gave a small wave. "See you tomorrow."
I think 12 pages is enough for right now...
Translation
E'tokmite'k: Peace